Taking One Down

I don't know why I feel so down today. The classes were pretty good, and I pretty much managed to accomplish what I planned to teach so far in my week's lesson plans.
I guess it started when my husband decided to take the car from me this morning. He has a day off because of Ford's funeral, and he couldn't bear to be stuck without a car all day.
I generously gave in; even being nice enough not to point fingers at him for the car he has been pushing off leasing since September.
So this morning, after he left me stranded in the house, I sat down at the computer to begin typing up the girls' yearbook entries.
They were hideous. I am so embarrassed to be known as their writing teacher.
I know that really it's not about their writing skills; its about laziness. They could have done a much better job, but I'm refusing to let them redo them. Let these girls read their yearbook in 10 years and die of embarrassment. I'm way too busy with other important things right now to be on top of this yearbook; which, by the way, isn't my job.
I'm just doing my regular thing of being nice, and I'm doing my sister's job for now because she's very busy getting married.
Anyway, I was running late, and by the time I met the other teachers at the car service, I was huffing and puffing.
We had to pay the guy two dollars more because we made a stop to pick up one more teacher on the way.
Getting to school, I had to prepare mentally for the practice ELA test I was planning to give the 8th grade. I had a strong feeling they'd freak out.
I myself was only told about the ELA last week....
True enough, the kids went bananas.
I was very strict and told them that according to the test regulations I was not allowed to answer questions. C.F.C. immediately began crying. Not surprisingly, she also raised her hand about a dozen times during the test to ask me what different words meant. I held firm and insisted I could not answer her.
She almost threw a tantrum, but I refused to give in to her.
R.S. also was a little bit of a pest with her questions. Between her and C.F.C. I was ready to fail someone.
The nice part to the day was that I discovered that my 8th grade class has the ability to be quiet for extended periods of time. For the 45 minutes the test took, there was not a sound in the room, except for C.F.C.'s and R.S.'s constant whining.
After 45 minutes I had them hand in their sheets. I still have to mark them, but the truth is that I don't care very much about how they scored individually. I need to mark them to see where the class needs strengthening.
After part one of the test, I spoke to them and reassured them that they were not being graded as individuals, and that this test was more of a class thing. Even to the government.
After that, we continued with a bit of history, and then I dismissed them.
During recess, my co came over to show me a note she had been given by H.B. in 7th grade.
She hadn't done her homework, and wrote this nasty note to my co about how she didn't read minds and she insisted my co did not tell the class the homework the night before. Funny thing, as the rest of the class had done theirs.
I took the note with her to the principal, and told her that this was the attitude we kept getting from the class. My co also went ahead to say that D.A. and some others were really taking this Shabbaton out of hand. I could have hugged her for coming to my aid in trying to prove how non deserving the girls were of this.
When I had come into school today, Hebco was working with 4 or 5 girls teaching them some dance steps for their Shabbaton on the landing. She made this face like "I'm doing all the work here and you can be sure I'm going to vie for all the credit."
She can have all the credit she wants, but I hate when she pushes it in my face.
Anyway, after we had spoken to the principal, she stopped me and said she had gotten some regards about some things I had said in the 8th grade.
I didn't exactly know what she meant, but I thanked her for bringing it to my attention. She said that the girls were not mature, and that they took things I said out of context sometimes. Oh yay.
That totally made my day. So aside from Hebco getting to stuff her accomplishments in my face, I have to deal with an immature class who twists around what I say.
I will think 100 times from now on before having fun in my classes.
I can't take all this preparing and trying hard and then getting it shoved into my face.
I know this sounds terrible, but I just want to have this baby early so that I can take my maternity leave. I am killing myself trying so hard.
Seventh grade was OK I guess. We continued with the play we had started yesterday, and got it all done. I still have to finish a small part of the aim and then two small aims to the chapter left. I would love to combine the test of chapter 7 & 8, but I doubt I can make them responsible for all that material for one test. I have to go and see.
Getting home was a pain as I didn't have the car and my husband didn't pick up my phone calls.
I got a ride with another teacher in the end, and came home to find that my husband hadn't made the supper he promised to.
Argh.
I managed to get it together by the time he came home, but now I'm going to lose it again, because I have to mark their ELAs and prepare for tomorrow's lesson....
I don't even know why I named this post this way. If anything, I'm refusing to go down. I keep getting up and then getting slammed in the head. I feel about as high as the doorknob is on my door. And I feel like that door just got banged into my face and I got a big round mark on my forehead from the knob that basically is telling everyone what a loser I feel like....
Ouch. My head hurts.